WIST QuotationsFeb 27

A quotation from Horace

Dear sire, and offspring worthy of your fire!
We bards are dupes to what ourselves admire.
Would I be brief — I grow confused and coarse;
Who aims at smoothness, fails in fire and force;
In him who soars aloft, bombast is found;
Who fears to face the tempest, crawls aground.
Who courts variety and fain would ring
A thousand changes on the self-same string,
Will paint, as ’twere in fancy’s wildest mood
Boars in the wave and dolphins in the wood.
Thus even error, shun’d without address,
Breeds error, diff’rent in its kind, not less.
 
[Maxima pars vatum, pater et iuvenes patre digni,
decipimur specie recti: brevis esse laboro,
obscurus fio; sectantem levia nervi
deficiunt animique; professus grandia turget;
serpit humi tutus nimium timidusque procellae:
qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam,
delphinum silvis adpingit, fluctibus aprum:
in vitium ducit culpae fuga, si caret arte.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 24ff (2.3.24-31) (19 BC) [tr. Howes (1845)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/14582/

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Horace - Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 "Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos]," l. 24ff (2.3.24-31) (19 BC) [tr. Howes (1845)] | WIST Quotations

Dear sire, and offspring worthy of your fire! We bards are dupes to what ourselves admire. Would I be brief -- I grow confused and coarse; Who aims at smoothness, fails in fire and force; In him who soars aloft, bombast is found; Who fears to face the tempest, crawls…

WIST Quotations
WIST Quotations Has Moved!Aug 20, 2025

A quotation from Douglas Adams

“You,” said Sally Mills, “are very strange.”
“Only,” said Dirk, “as strange as I need to be.”

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humourist, screenwriter
Dirk Gently, No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 10 (1988)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-douglas/74183/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #dirkgently #oddity #peculiarity #strangeness #weirdness

solobsdAug 3, 2025
Kaons are mesons made from an up/down and a strange quark (e.g. K⁺ = u + s̄). Their surprising mix of strange‑quark behavior and weak decays revealed CP violation, reshaping the Standard Model and still guiding new physics today.
🎯 #Kaon #ParticlePhysics #Strangeness
WIST Quotations Has Moved!Jul 6, 2025

A quotation from Ursula K. Le Guin

Strange roads have strange guides.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) American writer
The Farthest Shore, “Lorbanery” [Sparrowhawk] (1972)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/leguin-ursula-k/7735…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #ursulakleguin #guide #highway #journey #quest #road #strangeness

Bill SwislowJun 28, 2025
Is it enough to be Just Pizza? Not in Buffalo. This Main Street Just Pizza & Wings location has nonetheless closed. For hundreds of other interesting business names check out my book, Bizarre Bazaars, which you can buy via eBay. Linked from my bio.

#weirdsigns #funnysigns #weirdbusinessnames #funnybusinessnames #funnystorenames #inappropriatebusinessnames #strangeness #bizarrebazaars #sca_roadside #shopsigns #signage #signlovers
WIST Quotations Has Moved!Jun 16, 2025

A quotation from Nicolas Chamfort

The most absurd customs and the most ridiculous ceremonies are everywhere excused by an appeal to the phrase, but that’s the tradition. This is exactly what the Hottentots say when Europeans ask them why they eat grasshoppers and devour their body lice. That’s the tradition, they explain.
 
[Les coutumes les plus absurdes, les étiquettes les plus ridicules, sont en France et ailleurs sous la protection de ce mot: c’est l’usage. C’est précisément ce même mot que répondent les Hottentots, quand les Européens leur demandent pourquoi ils mangent des sauterelles, pourquoi ils dévorent la vermine dont ils sont couverts. Ils disent aussi: c’est l’usage.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 3, ¶ 249 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/chamfort-nicolas/377…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #absurdity #ceremony #convention #custom #precedent #protocol #ridiculousness #ritual #statusquo #strangeness #tradition

Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 "Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées]," ch. 3, ¶ 249 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)] - Chamfort, Nicolas | WIST Quotations

The most absurd customs and the most ridiculous ceremonies are everywhere excused by an appeal to the phrase, but that’s the tradition. This is exactly what the Hottentots say when Europeans ask them why they eat grasshoppers and devour their body lice. That’s the tradition, they explain. [Les coutumes les…

WIST Quotations
WIST Quotations moves again!Jan 23, 2025

A quotation from Adams, Douglas:

«
“You,” said Sally Mills, “are very strange.”
“Only,” said Dirk, “as strange as I need to be.”
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/adams-douglas/74183/

#quote #quotes #quotation #oddity #strangeness #weirdness

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 10 (1988) - Adams, Douglas | WIST Quotations

"You," said Sally Mills, "are very strange." "Only," said Dirk, "as strange as I need to be."

WIST Quotations
Matt PotterSep 14, 2024

Saw this weird optical effect this morning. The lantern is an illusion, though the bracket it’s hanging on is real.

Completely unedited image.

#opticalillusion #weird #illusion #reality #strangeness

HowToPhil (Phillip R)Sep 3, 2024

New issue of Kzoo Star dropped :)

Enjoy some #weirdness, #strangeness, and odd #humor? Like it in a semi-flyer-newsletter format? Like it #free because the first 10 of anything on #Vella is free?

You might like my nonsense!

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B0DDJRDHYF

Kzoo Star: Mostly Fictional News | Kindle Vella

Is it a zine? Is it a magical placemat from a disappearing restaurant of some indeterminate origin? Actually, it's more of a flyer. Just a small space full of super-short articles about mostly fictional people, places, and events happening around the cosmos. On with the show!

WIST Quotations moves again!Aug 22, 2024

A quotation from Byron, George Gordon, Lord:

«
‘T is strange — but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/byron/71562/

#quote #quotes #quotation #believability #comprehension #fiction #perspective #strangeness #truth

Don Juan, Canto 14, st. 101 (1823) - Byron, George Gordon, Lord | WIST Quotations

'T is strange -- but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction; if it could be told, How much would novels gain by the exchange! How differently the world would men behold! Apparent origin of the phrase "Truth is stranger than fiction."

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